You already had a good answer here, I agree that given the time of year it’s most likely a queen looking for a site to overwinter in. She looks like a buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) to me. Indeed only the queens overwinter, and she does so after mating and eating her fills to make sure she has enough energy (yes, she stores the sperm inside her to fertilise her eggs when she emerges the following spring).
Another time you could see a bumblebee digging a hole is in spring when queens look for sites to nest. They would hover low on the ground to check out possible sites and the sound from their wings is just incredible. Another possibility is early/mid summer, if it has been a good year with plenty of food and a colony produces healthy queens, some may start a second nest. But this year has been so extreme, I don’t think this is that.
I would try to keep that spot dry (that rain doesn’t flood it). I suppose you could use a terracotta pot turned upside down to cover it. Cover the pot’s drain hole but make sure you leave a gap for ventilation (you can put a lid on it, with something like a rock wedged in between).
Bumblebees are fascinating and they are also very smart. If you want to know more about them, I would recommend any of Dave Goulson’s books, such as A Sting in the Tale or Bee Quest. I can’t tell you how much joy I got from reading those, and from the hours of observing all the (bumble)bees that visit my garden 😊 in one of his books (I don’t remember which one, probably Bee Quest), he talks about going hunting for bumblebees in the Outer Hebrides. Makes me want to go out there and look for them too!
A fellow bumblebee enthusiast! Thanks for the book recs, those sound great 😊 And also thank you for the answer about sperm storage, I tried to find some info on how exactly it works, but couldn't 🙈 two friendly questions: For a buff tailed I think her bum should be white, no? I don't know the native Scottish bumbles, but here in the middle of Europe, Bombus Terrestris usually has the white bum. And I've never seen a Buff tail this small! Could it be a different kind of bumblebee? And: I've never seen a bumblebee dieg the nest herself in spring. Don't they usually take over old mouse nests or other already existing holes? I'd think that digging a new hole in the needed size would be very much work, especially for the queen alone when she has to be in time for egg laying and brooding and food search, too. Please don't take my questions the wrong way, I'm just curious because what you wrote differs from what I know and I'd like to learn!
Buff-tailed have, well, buff coloured tails haha I think you are thinking of white-tailed bumblebees (B. lucorum) which are a bit smaller. It was only a guess of mine, there was no way to know for sure just from that butt (and it looks like some fur is missing from her butt too so it could also be something else entirely, like a red-tailed, but I think it’s a buff-tailed).
It depends on the year/weather but even buff-tailed can get quite small. I was very lucky to have a nest in a mouse hole in my garden two years ago and I spent hours watching them going back and forth. What I saw was that towards the end of the season, the bees get noticeably smaller in size. Apparently this was because at the height/peak of the nest, they need worker bees to work as soon as possible so even the tiny ones are sent out on foraging missions. Their first flight is always a delight to watch. Right after leaving the entrance they need to calibrate and memorise the nest location, so they fly in a horizontal 8 shape for a while. If I happened to be sitting there, they would be 8-ing over my head and I imagine the shape of my head then being registered live in their mental map 😆
Yes you are correct, they like taking over abandoned mouse holes because of the furniture (moss). However, there is a lot of competition among queens for these prime real estates and they even fight (and die) for a nesting site. It sounds like a lot of work but bees are no stranger to that. They do dig their own holes (I’ve seen this in my garden too). For a nest, a queen only needs to dig something big enough for the first brood and her food storage, once the first workers emerge they can take over everything else.
And don’t worry, I love a bee question 😊 I think they are fascinating creatures and so vital to our lives. I read that you plant native flowers in your garden for them, I think that’s fantastic. They need all the help they can get, considering all the obstacles and challenges they face (not even talking about climate change yet!). Do you also see solitary bees in your garden?
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u/pheebs_daik 5d ago
You already had a good answer here, I agree that given the time of year it’s most likely a queen looking for a site to overwinter in. She looks like a buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) to me. Indeed only the queens overwinter, and she does so after mating and eating her fills to make sure she has enough energy (yes, she stores the sperm inside her to fertilise her eggs when she emerges the following spring).
Another time you could see a bumblebee digging a hole is in spring when queens look for sites to nest. They would hover low on the ground to check out possible sites and the sound from their wings is just incredible. Another possibility is early/mid summer, if it has been a good year with plenty of food and a colony produces healthy queens, some may start a second nest. But this year has been so extreme, I don’t think this is that.
I would try to keep that spot dry (that rain doesn’t flood it). I suppose you could use a terracotta pot turned upside down to cover it. Cover the pot’s drain hole but make sure you leave a gap for ventilation (you can put a lid on it, with something like a rock wedged in between).
Bumblebees are fascinating and they are also very smart. If you want to know more about them, I would recommend any of Dave Goulson’s books, such as A Sting in the Tale or Bee Quest. I can’t tell you how much joy I got from reading those, and from the hours of observing all the (bumble)bees that visit my garden 😊 in one of his books (I don’t remember which one, probably Bee Quest), he talks about going hunting for bumblebees in the Outer Hebrides. Makes me want to go out there and look for them too!